Category: Performances

Mozart’s Coronation Mass

Program:
Haydn The Storm; Scena di Berenice
Haydn Symphony No. 96, Miracle
Mozart Coronation Mass

SF Symphony on Wednesday night with W., as usual. No dinner, we both worked late. cold outside.

the SF Chorus was there. Apparently their director, Vance George, is retiring after this year, so there was a big piece in the program about him.

The first half of the program was really quite good. All Haydn: a chorale piece, a soprano solo [quite good, the Scena de Berenice], and then a gorgeous Haydn Symphony: No. 96, from the period when he was in London. I was really fond of the first two movements, especially the second movement, the Andante. A really show the orchesta’s musicality as the melody moves around the orchestra in a series of wind solos, as the violins fill in the background. It was a smaller orchestra, so it was easy to find who was playing what at any particular moment.

The second half was Mozart’s Coronation Mass. I feel like I’ve sung this piece while in college. Maybe just the Kyrie and the Gloria–actually, I’m pretty sure I remember singing it at church when I sang in McCauley’s choir. The rest of the Mass I didn’t really remember. Anyway. I enjoyed the Mass, but I kind of ran out of steam towards the end. The guest conductor was good, (Haselbock) and he filled out the program with some pieces that were probably played at the original Mass performance, or at least in the same time period.

The quartet of soloists were really good, especially the soprano,who sang the Haydn piece in the first half. She also wore a great blue taffetta dress. I’m always happy when the guest artists wear something attractive and colorful. Makes it more of an event. I know I do my part, showing up in my jeans, t-shirt, red and beige suede Pumas, and my bright red-orange fleece.

I usually use the 3rd floor Men’s room at the intermission, mostly because I like to step out onto the outdoor platform they have up there tog et some fresh air. As I got on the elevator, two young men in priest’s robes and colalrs got on with me. One was a tall, lanky Germanic-looking guy with sandly blonde hair and glasses. Maybe about 6 feet tall. The other was a short, squat Asian guy, with a full beard and mustache. On the elevator they talked about the glass mirrors and claustrophobia. “Didn’t Hitler demand only really large elevators?” I wondered if this was their first time at the symphony.

After I got out of the bathroom, I went out to the deck. There I saw the two priests. The tall one pulled out a small metal case with a faux gold trim. He offered a cigarette to the asian priest. They both lit up separately.

Not everyday you see some priests light up. It was delicious to watch them enjoy a small vice.

Anyway, fun concert. W had a party to go to. I was tired, and went home and caught up on Battlestar Galactica and Grey’s Anatomy.

I’m at Milk watching a couple local bands. The first band was great, a noise pop trio, mostly percussion, that was just an amazing act, especially from the drummer. 24 minutes of straight playing–mostly percussion. Not my usual cup of tea, but after a few minutes i realized tha these guys are really good, and the rest of the way agape at the awesome virtuostic performance. A kind of sonic enema, cleansing the system of melody and pop and cliche and just delivering toe tapping rhythm.

The next band, Scrabbel, I find to be kind of sleepy. They try to be lyrical and retro, but it doesnt always work for me. When I see all six of them on stage (3 guitars: string, electric, bass; drummer; cello; and backup vocalist/percussionist) I think: there’s a good band in here somewhere. And that’s often the case. Somewhere in all the instrument changes there’s occasionally a good song, and a good combination of instruments really grooving together. But there always seems to be at least one member who is left out at any one time.

Looking forward to the final set by a band called dealership. They’re good. (wwww.dealerkids.com).

But i get the feeling the first band will be the best tonight.

—

(Later)

So, dealership was great, but they had an extremely short set because they club told them they only had so much more time. Which sucked. Between the bands they had DJ sets, where all the kids would dance. I think their dance music sucked, and the DJ kept shouting “Frisco! Let me hear you!” which I found annoying.

But Dealership was good. Evidently the bassist and drummer are in a band called Citizens Here And Abroad, which I’d like to see sometime.

Photos of Dealership

Okay, I get back from a week out of town, and all of the sudden there’s a ton of live music I want to see.

Here’s what I see in today’s guardian:

Tomorrow 2/23 @ Milk: local bands Scrabbel, Dealership. Definitely gonna try to see this, since it is so close.

3/4 Saturday: Polysics @ Cafe du Nord.

3/13 Monday: Artic Monkeys @ GAMH. Read a bit about them in the New Yorker, and there are posters up everywhere. I downloaded some of their music, and I can tell that I don’t care for them.

3/21 : Belle & Sebastian / New Pornos @ Design Center.

3/31 : Film School @ Slim’s.

details:
John Pickard The Flight of Icarus (U.S. premiere)
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1
Haydn Symphony No. 99

I went to the SF Symphony on Friday night. Lang Lang, W.’s and my favorite guest pianist was playing.

First the bad:

The guest conductor I wasn’t fond of. Between him and Haydn, managed to trick the audience into clapping about 200 measures before the end of the piece. Those kinds of pauses in a piece are tricky, but if the audience is engaged and the conductor makes the signal clear, no one claps. apparently everyone was ready to get out of there, and a big round of applause interrupted the piece–yours truly included. and this wasn’t just a few people who didn’t know what was going on… a good 30 percent of the hall. The best thing I can say is at least it didn’t interrupt a piece I really cared about.

The opening piece, Icarus, was a nice little tone poem. Still, it lacked the arrative magic of a Respighi.

-/-

But really, this concert was all about LangLang, as evidenced by the crowds of families (mostly Chinese) with thier children, who left at the half, after LangLang’s encore. (And who can blame them? They gotta get those kids to bed.)

We had seen him at his SF debut in 2000, when he was a fuzzy headed, gangly 18 year old. The contrast between his awkward appearance and obvious youth–and the beauty and joy of his music was a stuning contrast. Friday he showed up a bit older, but no less eye-catching. Now his buzzcut has grown into long gently waving locks, just above his shoulders; instead of a standard tux he wore a black felt suit, with a black collared shirt, no tie. Like a Chinese Jesus dressed for an Elvis Presley impersonators party.

W. laughed when I said, “lookit, our little Lang Lang’s all growed up!”

The Beethoven was nice, but it’s not my favorite piano concerto. Call me an old codger. What did touch me was Lang Lang’s encore–he played a chinese tune (I can’t recall the name of it) in honor of the Chinese New Year at the end of the month. The melody evoked a quiet scene in a teahouse in a Shaw Bros. movie. and it was fun to imagine Lang Lang playing the accompanimenttest

MTT conducting Tchakovsky.

Rimsky-Korsakov Dubinushka
Stravinsky Petrushka
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4

A great all-Russian program. No guest artists to distract, just MTT and a very large symphony. I enjoyed the Stravinsky a lot. To be honest, I got a little lost in symphony, but enjoyed the scherzo and the last movement.

W was busy so I took my friend Ty to this concert. Dinner beforehand at Q. And we dressed up–I wore my suit and my purple tie. Fun.

ah, the symphony.

Met W at Jade bar for a cocktail ($2 happy hour!) before the concert.

The conductor was David Robertson, who I really like. He is shorter than MTT, and not as willowy; but like MTT he knows how to get good sound from the orchestra.

I also like the happy, snappy way he takes bows after the concert.

The appetizer this week was by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. ‘La noche de los Mayas’ is a setting of a eponymous film score, released in 1939.

It is a loud, charming, and entertaining piece: with lots of rhythms and melodies from hispanic songs. The final movement has some fantastic percussive stretches. At one point, I counted 15 percussionists all banging away at once.

At the half, I went up to the first tier exhibit commemorating the 25th anniversary of the opening of the concert hall. For some reason, I got really excited to see and touch one of the big plexiglas panels which are suspended from the ceiling above the orchestra to shape the sound.

It was like a science museum exhibit, sandwiched between two concerts. Fun!
The main event was Carmina Burana. I swear I’ve heard this piece in conceet at Davies Symphony Hall sometime in the last two years; but the program says that it hasn’t been performwd by the symphony since 98. Which means it would have had to have been a guest orchestra and chorus; which is unlikely given the number of instruments and singers, or I’m dreaming.

I’m about 100 percent sure I heard this recently.

Anyway, it is a great piece of music, and the crowd loved it. A huge chorus, so the sound was big and full and throaty. The soprano had a strange throaty sound, and for such a small lady could really open her mouth. Picture the people singing on schoolhouse rock, or Lucy tilting her had back to laugh at Charlie Brown.

Anyway. a meat and potatoes kind of night, musically. You can’t live on pop alone.

saw stomp a few Wednesdays ago.

that was a lot of fun. I liked how the pieces amped up and wound down. there was great design in the variety, speed and types of sound. Mostly I enjoyed how original it was–or how it represented a type of creativity with everyday objects.

one segment, had great lighting design. the dancers on stage, rotating in two circles. a strong low angled light from behind them cause their long, angled shadows on the walls fore of the procenium, to either side of the audience.

there was some audience interaction, which made me think again of the winking acknowledgement in performance arts to the audience’s self awareness. the long ghost of Zengotita is inescapable, these days.

I went to this show cause my friend KA called me and invited me out. So glad she did!

Pants Pants Pants – extremely uneven, extremely entertaining/
featuring a big white guy who can actually rap, play the trombone, do some kick ass lip syncing, and play the bass.

Then there’s Evolution Control Committee. A bit of Negativland, with live samples, lip synching, and videos.
also, ECC gets the award for coolest hot-shit musical hardware: the Thimbletron!
One of my favorite songs had Dan Rather samples over AC/DC, with weirdly disturbing video images in the background.

All this, just 2 blocks from my house! plus, my waitress friend at King of Thai bought me a thai iced tea when I dropped by after the show. whoo!

So, I am having quite the day in Chicago.

At the tail end of my very relaxed run, I ran by the new music pavilion in Grant Park. Crowd was forming. I asked, and a lady told me the CSO was playing at 730pm. So I hustled to the hotel for a shower.

Came back, and missed the first piece cause I had to buy dinner. Walnut pear salad, shell pasta, cookie, Orangina.

the pavilion is gorgeous, especial late, all lit up. I didn’t think much of the second piece, but this last symphony–wow, powerful and emotional. and a great chorus and soloists.

It’s chilly now. but it was nice to eat my salad under the dusky sky, watching the kids wandering about and listening to this great music. Also nice to be able to use my phone to look up my own program notes 🙂

This pavilion is such a great temple. It’s dark now, and they’ve got blue lights on the pavilion.

It’s cooler now, and i’m huddling in my sweater. This is a long symphony.